Sean C. Morgan
A Marks Ridge man says he is grateful to people who stopped to help him after he sustained minor injuries in an ATV crash near his home.
The problem is he hasn’t been able to find them.
Dale Burnett, 91, was in a field neighboring his house, knocking down blackberry vines along a fence line June 11.
He said he turned his four-wheel Honda around to head home and was driving along the fence line, when he crashed.
He can’t remember precisely what happened, Burnett said.
“I think my front wheel caught the fence, and it threw me off. I just remember getting up and hurting. I got up, and the four-wheeler had toppled over. I walked down the road, and I was going home.”
He didn’t get far. He walked just a short way along Marks Ridge Drive, which is adjacent to the field, toward his house.
“I hurt so bad,” he said. He laid down on the south side of the road. A woman went by in a car and then turned around to check on him. He asked her to take him home and if she and the other person in the vehicle would be willing to help him get his ATV.
Burnett’s daughter, Lori Tuter, recalled the way he told her the story: “‘Do you need help? You said, ‘Well, ya know, I guess I do.'”
The two passersby took him to his ATV. Using a chain he always carries on the ATV, they towed Burnett and the ATV the short distance home.
Burnett’s wife, Cathy, had gone into town to get her hair done. When she returned, walked through the door and saw Burnett, she told him he needed to go to the doctor.
“I’ve been beaten up before,” Burnett said. He didn’t think too much of it, but it turned out he had two broken ribs. His right side was black and blue from his chest to his waist.
According to AccuWeather, Sweet Home had a high of 92 degrees that day.
With the high temperatures that day, Tuter said, “when he says he laid down in the ditch, that would’ve been bad. In some ways, they may have saved his life.”
If he hadn’t gotten home, Cathy told him, “I wouldn’t have known where to look for you.”
“I’d just like to thank them,” Burnett said. “I was hurting enough I didn’t want to walk home.”
“It’s just nice someone cared enough to stop,” Cathy said.
“There’s a lot of kind people that do something because it’s the right thing to do,” Tuter said.
Tuter tried to find the people who helped him, she said. She posted to Facebook, trying to find out who drove by. They received an outpouring of support on Facebook.
Anyone with information about who stopped that day is invited to contact Tuter and the Burnetts through the newspaper, (541) 367-2135, or Sean Morgan at (503) 580-1045.